The Gala
by Dukefan1982
Summary: This is my Bonesology Valentine's Day Challenge fic for Jazzyproz. She wanted Booth and Brennan, romance, an expensive piece of art/sculpture, someone is pantless…..


A/N: This is my Bonesology Valentine's Day Challenge fic for Jazzyproz. She wanted Booth and Brennan, romance, an expensive piece of art/sculpture, someone is pantless…..

* * *

It was the night of annual Jeffersonian spring Gala. None of the squints actually liked going to the gala, but it was a requirement of their employment. Cam had seen right through the FBI needing things analyzed only by Hodgins the first time Booth tried after she became the head of the lab and had made Hodgins go as her date for the evening. Now over a decade later the gala was still hated, but mostly tolerated due to mostly everyone having someone to accompany them. Angela was in the hall bathroom that was used by Christine and Hank helping Brennan do her hair. "Bren, you look fabulous!"

"Thanks Ange. Thanks for helping me with my hair, I can't put it up the way Booth likes it by myself, and I didn't have time to make an appointment to have Leslie do it either."

"You're welcome, Sweetie. You're doing your hair for Booth?"

Brennan blushed a little, " yeah when we go out like this, he likes for me to wear my hair up. He enjoys taking it down for me when we get home at the end of the evening."

"Bren, don't blush, I think it's cute. I do things like that for Hodgins too. Thanks for having Michael Vincent and Katheryn over tonight."

"You're welcome Ange. Aubrey enjoys spending with all our children and they love him."

"I thought he'd be coming tonight."

"No, Ms. Warren is staying home because she has her dissertation Monday. Aubrey isn't coming to the gala alone. He also needs a place to stay, Ms. Warren kicked him out of her apartment this morning. Apparently his presence is causing her stress levels to rise."

"Poor Jessica…"

"Yes, defending your dissertation is very stressful. She will do well and Aubrey will be forgiven by Monday night. Booth and I are sending them dinner."

"Aww, look at the two of you doing something special for the intern…"

Brennan shrugged and started doing her makeup. "Jessica reminds me a lot of myself, she's not as socially inept as I am, but we share a lot of academic similarities. Becoming an anthropologist is hard, it's harder if you're female. When I was preparing to give my dissertation I didn't sleep for days and I hardly ate. I wasn't in a relationship at the time, but if I had been I'd probably threw them out too." Brennan picked up her lipstick and turned to Angela. "Do you think I should go darker?"

"I think a shade darker would look better with the dress…"

"The darker shade is in the bathroom."

"I'll get it Bren."

"I can get it, Ange."

"Let me, Bren. As soon as Hank sees you he'll want to be held and you know he's always sticky or messy. You don't want to get anything on your dress."

Brennan looked at herself in the mirror, Angela was right Hank was always messy and her dress was new. It was a deep purple backless knee length dress that Angela assured her would figuratively knock Booth's socks off. "Thanks." Angela nodded and headed for Booth and Brennan's bathroom, not bothering to knock she opened the door and started inside.

Booth's head snapped up when he heard the door start to open. "Hey Bone-What the hell! Angela!" He quickly turned towards the shower.

Angela held back a giggle, "Sorry studly, Bren said you weren't home…"

"Well I am now…"

"I can see that…" Booth started blushing and moved so more of his towel clad body was obscured by the shower curtain.

Booth sighed, "what do you need, Angela?"

"Bren wants her other lipstick."

"All of Bones' makeup is in that basket on the counter."

"I'm going to have to come all the way in to get it..."

"Just hurry up!"

Angela walked all the way into the bathroom and over to the sink, stealing a glance or two at Booth. He really was a good looking male specimen. She started looking through Brennan's makeup basket.

"Just take the basket and anything else you think Bones might need or want so you don't have to come back and ogle me some more..."

"I'm not ogling you..."

"FBI Angela, I know when someone is ogling me..."

"Okay Studly..." Angela picked up the basket and headed for the door before stealing one last glance at Booth.

"Angela!"

"I don't know why you're such a prude, Booth, you're still extremely hot for being almost 50... You're almost as hot as Hodgins..." with that Angela headed down the hall. Booth quickly crossed to the bathroom door and locked it. Angela returned to Brennan with a grin on her face. "Booth's home, Bren." Angela put Brennan's makeup basket on the sink.

"He is? I didn't hear him come in."

"Yeah, he's been home a while. I didn't knock when I went to get your lipstick. I caught him in a towel just getting out of the shower. He turned about ten shades of red when he saw it was me and not you coming into the bathroom."

"You didn't ogle him did you, Ange?"

"Maybe a little… I don't see why he's such a prude, he's extremely hot for being almost 50. If I wasn't marred to Hodgins and you weren't married to Booth I'd think about dating him… And a whole lot more…"

"Angela! Booth is only a prude with people who aren't me…"

"Good to know, Sweetie. I'm going to go if you don't need any more help. I need to get ready and help Hodgins with his tux."

"I can do the rest myself. Thanks for helping me tonight."

"You're welcome, Sweetie. See you later tonight."

"See you tonight." Angela peeked in on the kids and left. With her makeup done Brennan gathered up all of her things and headed for her and Booth's bedroom. She found Booth standing in front of the mirror tying his bowtie. "You look handsome tonight, Booth." Booth grinned a little and turned to Brennan, "you look fabulous, Bones."

"Thanks, Booth. Angela told me what happened…"

"Yeah…"

"If I'd known that you were home I'd have gotten the lipstick myself."

"I know. Christine told me you were getting ready. I just came up here and started getting ready myself. I'm not mad at Ange for walking in on me, it really was an accident. It just surprised me a lot. Of course she had to ogle me…"

Brennan chuckled and kissed Booth. "Booth, Angela has ogled you every chance she's gotten for the last 15 years."

"I know, but I'm fully clothed when she does it."

"She thinks you're almost as hot as Hodgins…"

"I'm hotter than bug boy…"

Brennan chuckled and smoothed Booth's lapels. "We need to leave." Booth nodded and followed Brennan out of the bedroom.

"Wait, why are you laughing, Bones? You don't think I'm hotter than bug boy?"

"I think you are way hotter than Hodgins, Booth. Especially when you're in a tux… it's just weird to hear you talk about yourself in that way..."

"Um yeah… let's get out of here before Aubrey has to take the kids to his place…. And that dress doesn't make it through the night…"

B&B

They had been at the gala for a little over an hour schmoosing potential donors and eating odd tasting hors d'oeuvres and consuming large amounts of alcohol. Booth watched Brennan talk to some older guy from across the room when the guy moved on to someone else he walked up behind Brennan and pulled her against him, he whispered in her ear. "Bones, let's get out of here."

Brennan twisted a little to look at Booth's face. "We can't, Booth. The gala lasts until 10pm, it's barely past 6."

"So?"

"As the co-head of the medical legal lab I have to be here. A large portion of our funding for the year comes from this gala. Not to mention there are Senators here, I need to make sure they know our work is essential to the crime rate falling in D.C. The federal budget for our lab is very small, but very important. I need to make sure we get it…"

"Cam can handle that."

"But…"

"Bones, let's go, I want some real food. I've eaten so many salmon puffs I'm going to grow gills if I eat another."

"Booth, you can't grow gills from eating too many salmon puffs…"

"Figure of speech, Bones. Seriously let's go." Booth stole a kiss.

Brennan smiled and kissed him back. "Okay we can leave after they raffle off the sculpture."

"Why? It's butt ugly! No one would want it…"

Brennan smirked, "I like it I think it's beautiful."

"Bones, it looks like something Hank made in daycare!"

"It does not, it's worth more than both of us make a year…"

"Really? It looks like hunks of clay that didn't stick together that are glued to a board."

"Booth stop! It does not… Go eat another salmon puff." Booth pouted but headed towards the food. Forty minutes later Booth was the not so proud owner of the butt ugly sculpture.

"How did I even win this thing? I didn't buy tickets for it!"

"I bought the tickets and put your name on them, Booth. I've been doing it since we've been partners."

"Really, Bones?"

"Yes, employees can't buy tickets, but their family members can. I do it to donate money to the other areas of the museum. I buy the minimum number of tickets, but write out a large check."

"Cool. Can we go now that I've got this hideous thing?"

"Yes."

"Finally!" they said their goodbyes to Cam, Arastoo, Hodgins, and Angela. After they had exited the ballroom Hodgins turned to Angela, "Angie, where are Dr. B and Booth going? It isn't like her to skip out on the gala early."

"Booth got them a room upstairs for the night…"

"I should have thought of that…"

"We could go home…Aubrey is babysitting until 11…"

"Let's do it…"

Angela laughed and leaned across the table, "Cam we're going to head home, Hodgins has been sitting in his wheelchair too long. He needs to lie down and stretch out before the muscle spasms start."

"Okay, but it's a condition of your employment with the Jeffersonian that you attend the gala every year…"

"We attended, we schmoosed, we ate and we drank. I'd say our work here is done."

"Cam, you let Doctor B and Booth leave, why can't Angie and I go too?"

"Because even after knowing Booth for 30 years that that stupid charm smile still gets to me. All right, go, before I change my mind."

"Thanks, Cam. You're the best." Angela started quickly wheeling Hodgins toward the door.

B&B

Booth took Brennan's hand and led her to the elevator. "Booth what are you doing? You're parked right by the door."

Booth smiled, "I got us a room for the night upstairs. I thought we could use a night alone, we haven't had one in a long time."

"What about-"

"Aubrey is watching the kids overnight or if it's too much Ange will stay with them tonight. I went home at lunch and packed a bag for us. That's why Angela insisted that you get ready in the other bathroom, she didn't want to chance you noticing things were missing from your closet."

"So you've been planning this?"

Booth grinned, "yeah, for a week or two…"

"Thank you, Booth…" Brennan kissed him just as the elevator stopped on their floor. Booth quickly led Brennan to their suite and unlocked the door. She stepped inside and looked around, "Booth, this must've cost a fortune…"

"A small one, but it's worth it." Brennan smiled and noticed the chocolate covered strawberries and champagne chilling on the table. "Booth…"

"Those were complimentary. The flowers are from me." Brennan then noticed the bouquet of pink and white daisies on the coffee table. "Booth, they're beautiful. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Bones." Booth started to undo his bowtie.

"Leave it on, I'll do it…." Brennan started towards Booth, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door. "Room Service!"

"Coming!" Booth quickly crossed to the door and opened it. He quickly tipped the person who brought the cart and wheeled it inside.

"When did you order room service?"

"When you were telling Cam we were leaving. You can do it from their app now. I should have waited until after…"

"No we can eat now…"

"Bones…"

"It will be worth it…"

"Okay…"

After their dinner of a steak, a baked potato, and salad for Booth and a salad and a baked potato for Brennan. Booth wheeled the cart into the hallway and put the 'do not disturb' sign on the door and joined Brennan in the bedroom.

"How was your night, Booth?"

"Good, but it's way better now."

"Good."

"How was your night, Bones?"

"Good, but it's going to get better…"

"Yeah, Bones you're keeping the sculpture in your office."

"That was my intention…"

"Good. Have I told you how much I love it when you wear your hair up?"

"You may have mentioned it once or twice…"

"I really love it because at the end of the night I get to take it down…" Booth gently pulled one of the pins from Brennan's hair and watched the small section fall down around her shoulders. Ten slow and passion filled minutes later Brennan's hair was free of pins and hanging around her shoulders.

"Have I ever told you how much seeing you in a tux turns me on, Booth?"

"A few times, Bones…" Brennan chuckled and began to slowly take off Booth's bowtie…

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A/N2: Well, there it is. Hope you like it. Happy Valentine's Day, Everybody!


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